One of the few remaining pieces of an abandoned railroad in East Falls Church is about to receive public recognition.
The Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB) on March 19 approved the design of a commemorative marker to be located adjacent to remnants of a train trestle next to Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park.
The request to install the marker came from NOVA Parks, which owns the regional trail, via its historian, Paul McCray.
McCray said the structure represents “one of the very few remaining pieces of the railroad” that ran along what is now the trail’s right-of-way until the late 1960s.
Constructed in 1926, the trestle permitted coal-filled train cars to pull on top of bins and unload supplies of coal, which then was trucked away for delivery to customers.
The structure remained in use until the Washington & Old Dominion rail line was abandoned in 1968. In 2014, a developer removed about a quarter of the trestle structure, but the remainder is still standing on NOVA Parks property.
In 2014, the county government named the structure a local historic district. To date, it is the only industrial structure in the county to have won the designation.
While HALRB members were happy about the marker, which should be in place by summer, some were not as thrilled by its planned ground-level location — inaccessible to people using the pedestrian/bicyclist bridge that crosses Langston Blvd.
McCray said the plan is to install directional signage on the bridge, showing the public a pathway to take in order to view the marker and trestle remnants.
“I would love to have it overlooking the trestle from the bridge,” McCray said, but pointed to concerns about people stopping to view it while others are trying to pass by.
“It’s strictly a safety concern,” he said.
HALRB member Richard Woodruff argued that the bridge is wide enough, and traffic along it infrequent enough, that this shouldn’t be a problem.
“I just think that’s overstating the safety concerns,” he said.
HALRB’s unanimous approval of the design gave NOVA Parks the leeway to make minor wording adjustments and swap out photographs if better options can be found. There will also be a QR code directing people to more information available online.
When in place, the trestle marker will join about 40 other historical markers on the W&OD Trail from Shirlington to Purcellville.
